Making connections in South Africa: Are locals friendly?

The international community sees South Africans as a warm and welcoming bunch, earning the country its nickname “The Rainbow Nation.” This is the finding of Remitly, a US-based money-transfer company which conducted a 3 000-person survey, reports Business Tech.  

In fact, South African ranks number one in the world for the friendliness. You can add that accolade to best work ethic, best rugby players and best middle-weight UFC fighters and second-best T20 cricketers. All jokes aside, Remitly says it knows people – dealing with tens of thousands of them across the world every day. So, you can rest assure that their answer to: ‘Are South Africans friendly?’ is based in fact.

ARE SOUTH AFRICANS FRIENDLY?

Survey participants answered a series of ‘agreeableness’ questions in a ‘Big 5 Personality Test’. The assessment looked at a nation’s personality traits. Namely. openness, conscientiousness, agreeableness, extraversion, and neuroticism. ‘Agreeableness’, or friendliness, is deemed the most effective way to gauge social harmony within a nation, says the firm.

Questions included whether respondents felt empathy for others, whether they took time for other people, and whether they like to make other people feel at ease. Higher scores show that nation’s people are friendly, generous, helpful, and willing to compromise for the betterment of others. The same exact traits the happen to make South Africans great employees, too.

NUMBER ONE RANK GLOBALLY

South Africa topped the list in the ‘agreeableness’ test with 34.63 out of 40. So, are South Africans friendly? Yes, foreigners who have travelled to Mzansi say the people are very friendly and they rate our natural beauty highly, too. Remitly adds a few more compelling reasons to visit South Africa.

These include affordable cost of living, because the favorable Rand/Dollar exchange allows for a high standard of living. Our incredible array of wildlife, generally warm climate and long stretches of beautiful coastline are world class, too. The survey proffered that it is not uncommon to be greeted by polite strangers while simply walking down the street in South Africa. And that the people of Mzansi are happy to socialise and share Ubuntu with our good sense of humour.

TOP 25 FRIENDLIEST COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD

• 1          South Africa 34.63
• 2          Greece 33.71
• 3          Croatia 33.50
• 4          Mexico 33.47
• 5          Sweden 33.30
• 6          Australia 33.13
• 7          Canada 32.84
• 8          Germany 32.66
• 9          Estonia 32.58
• 10        Belgium 32.50
• 11        Spain 32.41
• 12        Czech Republic 32.36
• 13        Italy 32.34
• 14        Japan 32.33
• 15        United States 32.31
• 16        Netherlands 32.27
• 17        Portugal 32.25
• 18        England 32.21
• 19        Poland 31.99
• 20        Switzerland 31.89
• 21        Austria 31.83
• 22        France 31.71
• 23        Ireland 31.54
• 24        Hungary 31.43
• 25        Finland 31.38